Portable caisson for use in building subaqueous structures



5 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

A PORTABLE GAISSON FOR, USE IN BUILDING SUBAQUEOUS STRUCTURES.

Patented A'u hifnanrar:

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' u Ztn ass as (No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 2.

H. FLA];

PORTABLE GAISSON FOR USE IN BUILDING SUBAQUEOUS STRUCTURES. N0.'303,830.Patented Aug. 19, 1884.

19 fianwy N. PETERS. Pmrmum m hn. Washingiofl. m c.

(No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet s.

H. FLAD.

PORTABLE GAISSON FOR USE IN BUILDING SUBAQUEOUS STRUCTURES No. 303,830.Patented Aug. 19, 1884..

N. PETERS, Photo-Lilhogmphen wmun zm DC.

(No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 4.

H. FLAD.

PORTABLE GAISSON FOR USE IN BUILDING SUBAQUEOUS STRUCTURES.

N0. 803,830. 3 Pa ,1884

(No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 5.

H. IE'LAD.

PORTABLE CAISSON FOR USE IN BUILDING SUBAQUEOUS STRUCTURES. No. 303,830.-1 a,tented Aug. 19,1884. 7 i

n itnesses iluirnn STATES PATENT rica HENRY FLAD, OF ST. LOUIS,MTSSOUBI.

PORTABLE CAISSON FOR USE IN BUILDING SUBAQUEOUS STRUCTURES.

LPECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 303,830, dated August19, 1884.

Application lied Jul 15, Iloncwcd September 11,1683. A gain renewed April 19, 1884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, HENRY FLAD, of the city and eountyof St. Louis, andState of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Portable Caisson forUse in Building Snbaqueons Structures; and I hereby declare thefollowing to be a full and clear description thereof.

The object of this invention is to construct a portable caisson having acentral workingchamber at the bottom, from which the water may beexpelled by means of compressed air, so as to allow workmen to enter thesaid workingchamber and construct whatever work may be required therein,and then, aftcrhaving completed such work, to allow the air to escapeand water to ,re-cnter the said worki ngchamber, and the arrangements tobe made so that alter completing the work in the caisson, the caissonmay be moved off to an other section of the work, as of a continuouswall or duct, or to another site, as in the case of a pier.

Detail features of the invention will be fully explained in thesubjoined specification, and the invention will be readily understood byreference to the accompanying drawings, of which-- Figure 1 is alongitudinal sectional elevation of one of the improved caissons as itappears when sunk ready for work on the end of a COllhlllllflllS wall.Fig. 2 is a sectional plan otthe same, taken on the line a: of Fig. 1.Fig. 3 is a general deck plan oft-he improved caisson. Fi g. 4 is alongitudinal sectional elevation of the improved caisson, showing themethod of usingit for laying a continuous duct or pipe. Fig. 5 is atransverse section of the caisson, taken on the line Y Y of Fig. 4, andlooking toward the raisinggates at the opening end of the caisson. Figs.6 and 7 are, respectively. a longitudinal sectional elevation of theshield for closing a pipe or duct while it is being laid, and a frontelevation of said shield. Fig. 8 is a ccntralscctional elevation of thecaisson, taken through the elevator or duinlrwaiter, and showing thecaisson in position for building an upper section of a wall.

The caisson is divided interiorly into two chambers, A and A, by meansof a transverse partition, a, and the sliding doors or gates D and D.The sides and stationary end of the compartment A which is the largerand also the working compartment) are formed of inner and outer walls orplates B and B, so as to leave a chamber between them, which saidchamber is subdivided into smaller cells or compartments B by means ofthe transverse partitions b. The whole of the compartments A, A, and Bare roofed or decked over by the roof or ceiling plates B, and if thecaisson be a large one it will require a second cover or deck, B, placedsome distance (possibly one or two feet or more) above the ceilings B,and in this latter case transverse and longitudinal partitions I) and bsubdivide this deck-chamber into small compartments B. The transversepartitions in this case not as deck-beams. The chambers or cells B havesloping bottoms b, which slope downward and out from the interior wall,B, so as to form a chisel-shapcc'l cut ting-edge, I)", vertically belowor a little outside ofthc outer wall B, and these cuttingedges 3)"should be made of steel plates, and have their lower edges as sharp aspracticable.

All of the walls, partitions, and roofing of this caisson will be madeof sheet metal, and secured in place to angle-irons or I-beams, whereverrequired, by means of suitable rivetlug.

All of the work forming the compartments of this caisson will be puttogether air-tight, so as to make the said compartments as nearly aspossible air and water tight. The working compartment A is separatedfrom. the smaller or outside compartment or overhang, A, by means ofsliding doors or gates D and D, in such a manner that the said doors orgates may be closed oropen, so as to form the two compartments or unitethem into one, as may be desired. These doors or gates D D mustnecessarily be made strong and air-tight, and move as nearly as possibleair-tightly in their ways a and a, which are secured to the inside ofthe wall or partition If the caisson be a small one, or there be achamber of sufficient size made above the deck for the working of thesegates or doors, the whole slide or gate may be made in one single piece;but for ordinarily large work I prefer to have the door or gate made intwo IOO 2 eoacso gates are arranged to move up and down in their saidways a a by means of the aetuating-screws D and D, which are applied totheir respective doors, D and D, and work through their fiXed nuts (I d,the former of which, however, is preferably only relatively fixed,

for it is or may best be fixed to the top of the upper door, andtherefore moves up with it. The outer end or front of the overhang, orpart outside of the gates D D, will only be partially closed in ordinarycases by the outer wall or casing B, an aperture being formed in it tofit, as nearly as possible, the contour of the work under construction.This work is represented in Fig. 1 as a continuous wall, the unfinishedend E of which is terminated within the outer chamber, A, of thecaisson; and in Fig. 4 the work is represented as a pipe or sewer, E,the unfinished end of which also terminates in the chamber A of thecaisson; but in Fig. 8 the work represented as being under constructionis a detached pier, FF. In the first two of these cases the outer wallor casing is formed (in each case, of course, especially for theparticular work intended) with the aperture in the said casing B just alittle larger than the section of the work, be it wall, pipe, oranything else, and, as aboy'e remarked, as nearly coinciding with thecentour of the said work as possible, so as to afford the opportunityfor calking or packing the interstice between. the casing B and the workE E, as the case may be, with any suitable packing-such as cotton bags,felt, blankets, or any other suitable materialso as to form an air-tightor nearly air-tight joint between the said work and the said plate 13.

In the case of a detached work,as of a pier, (shown in Fig. 8,) theouter wall B will be dispensed with, and in lieu thereof the end closedby gates similar to those described as D D, or the caisson constructedas first above described, except with the end B left off, the gates Dand D being fully sufficient for closing this end of the caisson in thepositions first above described.

Suitable man-holes, F F, with proper airlocks,will beformed in the toporroof of the cais son, for the ingress and egress of the workmen andthe admission of materials for the work; but as there is nothing newabout this part of the caisson no particular description of it will bemade. The lower or acute angle formed in the bottoms of the chambers orcompartments B" will be filled with astrong timber backing, R, whichwill give stiffness and the proper strength to this part of the caisson,and this timbering will also serve as a floor on which to place weights\V, of pig iron, stone, or any suitable weighting material for sinkingthe caisson. These weights WV may be put in or removed from thecompartments as occasion may require, proper doors or apertures beingformed in the walls of these compartments for this purpose; but ofcourse such doors or apertures must have proper covers arranged to besecured air-tightly over these openings. Each of the compartments B willhave three ducts, (marked on the drawings, respectively, G, G, and GThese ducts or pipes will each have suitable valves or. stop-cocks, g,g, or g", as the case may be, and suitable rods or devices (not shown)will be attached to these stop-cocks,and arranged to open or close themat pleasure, as the requirements of the service in the caisson mayarise. It will probably be advisable to place the rods or devices forworking these valves so they may be operated by the workmen in thechamber A, or above the deck; but this is a matter of noparticularimwork can arrange that to suit himself. In loeating theseducts or pipes, however, one of them, G, must be placed in the bottom ofthe chamber 13, through the sloping plate forming the bottom thereof,soas to admit or expel water to or from the said chamber B by means ofwithdrawing or forcing in compressed air for the purpose of sinking orraising the caisson, as required. The pipe G must be placed through thewall or partition B and curedthereto, and this pipe or duct will providecommunication between the interior or working chamber, A, and theballast-chamber 13 so as to allow the compressed air from the chamber,A, to enter and fill the chamber 13* when required, or be shut offtherefrom by means of the stop cock The pipe G will be placed in the'toppart of the cell B", and extend through and be secured to the decking,so as to allow air from the cell B to escape into the open air outsidethe caisson whenever required.

\Vithin the working-chamber of the caisson there are longitudinal waysor beams H,formed of channel bars or other suitable form of beams, whichare suspended from or bolted to the ceiling of the caisson, and whichsaid beams furnish longitudinal ways on which a traveler or cross-bar Iwill slide or travel on suitable sheaves or rollers for moving orcarrying material for use on the work in progress. The cross-bar ortraveler I maybe a single beam or a pair of beams bolted together, andprovided with sheaves or rollers t at their ends, so arranged as to reston and roll on the flanges or ways of the beams H, so as to carry heavymaterial for the work in progress from one end of the caisson to theother.

J represents a set of differential pulleys attached to or carried on thetransverse beam or traveler I, and arranged to lower material upon thework in any desired position, the said pulleys J,with their load, havinga transport'ance here, as the engineer in charge of the verse movementon the traveler I by means of their sustaining-sheave i (which isallowed to roll back and forth on the said traveler) and a longitudinalmovement in the caisson on the beams H, in the manner above described.(See Fig. 8.)

The material is lowered into the caisson on a truck, K, which isloweredinto the caissonchamber A on the dumb-waiter M through one of theair locks or man-holes F. The dumb-waiter M is such as is described inPatout No. 109,505,dated Xovember 22, 1870, and issued to myself, andits particular description herein therefore becomes unnecessary.

In operation, when the stone or other material shall have been loweredby the dumb waiter to the proper position within the caisson, the truckK will be landed on the plat form 7;, and from this position the stoneor other material will be taken up or lifted by the differential pulleysJ, and thereon conveyed to the required position on the hook,.in themanner above described.

For the purpose of sinking and trimming the caisson properly when inuse, in addition to the weights above described as being placed in thechambers or cells B I place weights WV and W on the deck of the caisson.The weights W are placed on trucks 20, so as to be adjustable as topositiomand consist simply ofhcavy weights, of iron or stone, in anydesired or convenient form. The weights \V" are formed of watercontained in troughs or tanks to, and any of these tanks may be whollyor partially filled or emptied, so as to regulate the position andquantity of weight as desired. The overhang or outer chamber, A, willnot have any side cells, 13 but the outer wall or plating, B, of thecaisson will continue straight along to the full length of the caisson,and be supported and held in the proper position by inside bracing andangleiron frame-work. Access to this outer compartment, A.,will beestablished from the main chamber A. through the two cells B next to thesaid outer chamber, A, the upper parts of which said cells orcompartments B will be formed into air-locks by placing in them andsecuring air-tightly to their sides transverse plates or partitions b,and placing in the sides of the said cmnpartments 1 thus cut oft'fromthe bottom sections of the said compartments or cells, man-holes ordoors 1 P, the doors P leading from the caisson-chamber A into theair-lock thus constructed, and the doors 1 leading from the saidairlocks into the outer chamber, A". Of course these doors must closeair-tightly. Access from the chamber A to the chamber A,when the doorsor gates .D I) are closed, will be made through these air-locks in theusual manner of entering cais sou-compaitmcnts where compressed air isused, and need not, therefore, be herein particularly described.

The caisson being built as above described, the operation or using itwill be as follows:

The chambers B will be empty, except as to the weights \V, which aredisposed therein, and the stop-cocks or valves 9, g, and g will beclosed. In this condition the caisson will be floated to the position itis intended to 00 cupy on the work; but if the depth of water in whichthe operations are to be conducted should be too shallow to float thecaisson, in creased buoyancy or floating capacity may be given to it bymeans of pontoons placed by the side of and lashed to it. If, however,the caisson is to be used on marshy ground where floating it isimpracticable, it may be suspended from a tram e-work erected for the parpose, or from piles driven in the ground, so as to sustain it. When thecaisson shall have been placed in the position itis desired it shalloccupy on the work, it will be lowered into the water and mud by openingthe valves or cocks g and 1 so as to allow water to flow into and airout of the chambers B and thus sink the caisson. If more weight berequired to sink the caisson, it can easily be supplied by pumping waterinto the chambers to on the deck, so as to allow the weight \V" thussupplied to sink the caisson as far as required;

The weight thus placed upon the caisson must be sufficient to not onlysink the caisson, but

also to counteract the upward pressure of the compressed air, which isnow forced into the be in all. cases where the caisson is used forbuilding a continuous work, like a quay-wall, or laying a pipe or sewer.In all such cases the workmen, in placing and lowering the caisson willtake care to have the outer or cutout wall B of the caisson embrace theend of the unfinished work, whether it' be a wall,

pipe, duct, or any form of work the unfinished end of which will.terminate within the outer chamber, A. As soon as the workmen enter theouter chamber, A, where they will at first find but little air-space inthe top part of the said chamber, they will commence to force thepacking material, consisting of bags, felt, blankets, oakum or anysuitable packing material, into the open space between the wall, pipe,or other work and the edge of the open ing in l, which is left in thesaid wall or side of the caisson for the entrance of the said wall orpipe, as the case may be. As soon as the upper part of the aperturebetween the work and the caisson is thus stopped up and the outward flowof air is prevented compressed air will be let into the chamber A fromthe chamber A, and the work of calking or stop ping up the aperturebetween the work and the caisson will then proceed from the top downwarduntil the whole aperture shall have If the work to be performed in thecaisson.

be the building of masonry, all of the material for the work may be sentdown into the caisson by the dumb-waiter; but if it be a section of pipewhich is to be laid, the pipe, or rather the section of pipe, to beplaced must be sent into the chamber A through the open doors or gates DD before the caisson is lowered, and such section of pipe or duct willbe held up by chains or ropes to the ways H, or to some other suitablepart of the caisson, until the water shall have been forced out of theworking-chambers, so as to give the workmen an opportunity to lay andadjust the pipe or duct.

In working with this caisson on laying of pipes or ducts, it will benecessary to step up the otherwise open end of the pipe within thecaisson to prevent the escape of the compressed air through the pipe orduct, and in order to do this I use the pipe stopper or shield S, whichis shown clearly in Fig. 4, and which his as closely up to the inside ofthe pipe or duct as possible, the intervening space be tween the shieldand the pipe being calked up with any suitable packing each time theshield is set or placed. In using or setting this shield,

each time a new section of pipe is added to the duct, as soon as the newsection is fully set and fixed in place the shield is drawn forwardtoward the outer end of the said pipe by means of a chain, S, which hasbeen previously passed through the newly-laid section of the pipe orduct and attached to the outer side of the said shield by means of somesuitable catch attached to the shield, so as to receive it. By means ofthis chain the shield is then drawn forward close up to the end of thepipe, and the said shield is then calked air-tightly in its newposition, and so on, the shield S is moved forward to the end of thepipe as fast as the pipe is laid.

In building detached works, like piers, the caisson may be lowered overthe position required, and the doors or gates D D, either in theposition shown. in Fig. 1 or placed at the cndof the caisson in lieu ofthe wall 13', used in precisely the manner hereinbefore described,except that they will remain closed during the entire time of conductingoperations within the caisson, and be opened only when the caisson is tobe raised or moved. In building works of greater height than can bebuilt in the limited dimension of the compartment A, the work 'may bebuilt in sections, one higher than the other, in which case the caissonwill first be sunk to the lowest position required; and after as muchwork shall have been completed as possible in that position the caissonwill be raised up to the next position, and in the more elevatedposition the caisson will be steadied and partly supported on temporarytransverse beams N, laid across the wall in notches or openings left inthe work for that purpose, as shown in Fig. 8. These beams N will haveto be taken into the caisson before it is sunk into-its first position,and held in the caisson out of the way until required for use, andplanking a may be put on top of them, when these are in use, as shown inFl 8, so as to afford a scaffold for the workmen within the caissonwhile the men are engaged on the work of the upper section.

The shield S, which is inserted in the completed pipe or tube, is shownbest in Figs. 4, 6, and 7 ,and as rapidly as aseetion of the pipe islaid and completed, as is shown in Fig. 4, this movable shield will bedrawn to the inner end of the said completed pipe F, so as to preventthe compressed air of the caisson from escaping through the otherwiseopen tube or conduit. This shield is formed of two parallel disksconnected together by suitable stays and braces, and the said disks ofwhich it is formed are made enough smaller than the pipe in which it isplaced to allow the said shield to be easily drawn forward therein bymeans of the traction chain or rope S, attached to it :for that purpose.On the front face of the outer disk i. 0., the one nearest thecaissonthere will be attached flexible paekings s, which will fittightly to the inside of the tube or pipe, and thereby prevent theescape of air from the caisson; yet these packings will be attached tothe traction-bars at the front end of the shield, so as to be drawnforward and partially off of the pipe, so as to afford no impedimen t tothe forward movement of the shield when it is to be moved forward inthis manner. There should be suitable anti-friction rollers attached tothe sides of the shield, so as to keep it off of the pipe sufficientlyto prevent undue friction thereon.

Having described my invention, I claim 1. Ina portable caisson, thecentral working-chamber, A, and extension A, formed of continuous doubleside walls, and transverse partitions forming air or waterspaces withinsaid double walls, and compressed air locks provided with air-tightdoors P I and the vertically-moving air-tight partition D D, andsuitable elevating screws, whereby the two compartments or chambers areseparated, substantially as shown and described.

2. In aportable caisson,the combination of the air-tight working-chamberA, provided with suitable vertically moving partitions, with theprojecting overhanging building-chamber A,-formed with end wall, B,supported on the completed portion of the structure, and suit ablepacking interposed between the end wall and the structure, and adaptedto be retained able vertically-moving air-tight partitions, of

the fixed Ways or track H, the traveler Land differential pulleys J,depending from and adapted to move across the said traveler Land asuitable dumbwvaiter or elevator, substan tially as shown and described.

6. In a portable caisson, the combination of the continuous outer andinner walls, B B, and rectangular braces or partitions 1), forming airand water cells 13 provided with cocks g, communicating with the workingchamber, the air-locks F F 1*,doors P 1?, partition B, thesuitably-located ballast-compartments N and movable trimming or coun terweight-s \V,the vertically-moving separating partition D D, andelevating-screws, and the end Walls, B, adapted to be supported on thecompleted portion of the work, and suit able interposed packing,substantially as shown and described.

7. The supportingbeams N, arranged on the pier E, and in combinationwith the caisson, substantially as described.

HENRY FLAD.

\Vitnesses:

M. RANDOLPH, J. B. THURsToN.

